Reply Re: Removal of Report Button from eBay Messages

[ittybitnot]

For those of you that participated/read the weekly chat from last week, the question was asked regarding removal and perhaps reinstatement of the "Report this Message" button for inappropriate use of the eBay message system. 

You can view a recap of the original question and the response here, Message 90, page 9:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Chat-with-eBay-Staff/Community-Chat-June-5-1-00-pm-PT-General-T...

Members that have come here asking about these seemingly odd messages have often been told to ignore/delete/not to respond etc.  we need to have them copy/paste (removing identifying information) so the information can be collected as per the suggestion by tyler@ebay 

If you have any left in your message inbox, post the text here.  Since this ID was primarily for posting and buying, mine were typically spam with solicitations to buy stuff someplace else. I just DELETE.   The more dangerous ones are in regard to requests for package redirects, and "give me your PayPal information so I can pay" type things. 

tyler@ebay  I do appreciate your response, and understand that the solution is not always what we want to hear.   I would like to respectfully suggest that the "proactive filters" are not working all that well.  If they involve some AI that is supposed to "get smarter over time"  maybe (humor intended) you can file SNAD and get your money back???

Hopefully, you get some c/paste posts here.  

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for opening this up @ittybitnot! Definitely hoping to get some good examples I can take to the filters team and help them tighten things up. 🙂 

[beardedbovine]

In January we got a message sent through an eBay listing soliciting donations.

"there are 69 here and some of them are special needs here at the rescue. we need more funding and donations. is there any way you can donate to us. is been hard for many rescues. please ?"

[ittybitnot]

Definitely hoping to get some good examples I can take to the filters team and help them tighten things up.  

That might not happen right away.  After all, we have been telling users to not respond/delete/ignore.   If the thread remains live, we can at least ask the newer posters to post the text here.   

My concern initially was aroused by the number of newbie sellers showing up here with "why doesn't the guy just bid?"  in response to various obvious scam (to everyone else) messages they were receiving via the message system.   

I can see how exact text might help improve your algorithm, but why not put the report button back in and you all can read the stuff for yourself?????

[ittybitnot]

I have been thinking about this.  Are these the same "proactive filters" that led to the removal of the buyer block in seller preferences regarding  "blocking buyers with (the allowed number) of policy violations?  I seem to recall that it was explained that the said block was removed because "proactive filters" were being employed that rendered the block as unnecessary. 

General consensus of us uninformed board members at the time was that there was no such thing as BUYER policy violations anymore with the current climate and polices such as they are.....If it is the same program, again file SNAD and get your money back. That one is not working either from what we can see. 

[ittybitnot]

tyler@ebay 

Here ya go..  Look here...screen shot and all:  

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Strange-ebay-message-SCAM/m-p/29915562#M1435431

[pburn]

Came here to post that exact link! I made a pitch for this thread on that thread, too. I encouraged people to post their messages in this thread. Hope that's okay . . .

[ittybitnot]

I made a pitch for this thread on that thread, too

Yes, I saw that. Thanks!  It is going to take time to collect this information I presume. 

[abfabvintage]

tyler@ebay 

Try this one. Not sure if he received it in his personal email or ebay messaging. But he said it had some kind of ebay link?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Weird-Message-Scam-Phishing/m-p/29918144#M1435789

[abfabvintage]

tyler@ebay 

Hi, here is another one. I think maybe there could be someone from your team to just peruse the seller threads as there are quite a few. But here is one I found this morning. And if this thread gets moved to LaLaLand, can you have Lithium at least tell us where it is being moved. I just see that on the Horizon lololol.

[abfabvintage]

SORRY: here is the thread: to Tyler:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Really-odd-message/m-p/29921301#M1436303

[autopiacarcare]

I'm not sure if this qualifies for what you are looking for, as it wasn't spam/scam messages exactly, but it was highly inappropriate and the kind of thing that I think eBay's filters should have caught.

Buyer hit a best offer auto accept and paid for the item, then sent a message saying he had tried to put the offer in for $25 lower than that price but eBay messed it up so he demanded a refund.  I politely and professionally explained that I would not have accepted that low of an offer and I'd be happy to fully refund and cancel the order - which I did.  I then checked out the buyer's "feedback left for others" and saw multiple comments like "worst low down dirty seller on eBay" , "This is probably the worst most disgraceful despicable sellers do not buy" etc.  There were enough of those and a few other red flags to where my gut instinct was this was not someone with whom I wanted to do business, so I added him to the BBL.

Boy was that gut instinct right.  Minutes after adding him to the BBL, I started receiving disgusting, violent messages from this buyer.  I literally couldn't copy and paste a single full sentence from those messages here without violating the board TOS, but I'll try to at least convey how bad it was within the rules here. 

They were laced with profanity, said things like "you must be the product of *non-consensual relations*  (He used the actual word for it of course and spelled it out in explicit, graphic detail, including that there must have been street bums and dogs involved) and your mother should have aborted you."  Believe it or not, that wasn't even the worst of it.

He also left a negative for cancelling the order, but restrained himself to the "low down dirty seller" language there like he had with other sellers, so I'd say it is a safe bet I was not the first to receive these types of messages from him.

This went on and on in multiple messages while I was waiting on hold to get someone in trust & safety on the phone.  Once I did  get someone, they agreed with me the messages were highly inappropriate.  They removed the negative, but I was advised because he had purchased from me, the BBL settings couldn't actually block  the messages and that I should just ignore/delete them if he continued.

Luckily he gave up pretty quickly after that, but I think it is absolutely awful that was the best eBay could come up with.  Those messages should have been filtered, blocked and never allowed through, period.

The best part of the story - it's been 4 months now and his account is still active. I see some new sellers have received the "low down dirty seller" feedback from him in that time, so clearly there were 0 consequences for that behavior.

[ittybitnot]

Boy was that gut instinct right.  Minutes after adding him to the BBL, I started receiving disgusting, violent messages from this buyer.  I literally couldn't copy and paste a single full sentence from those messages here without violating the board TOS, but I'll try to at least convey how bad it was within the rules here. 

I would think that disgusting and violent eBay messages would qualify.  However, using copy/paste might run into issues on the board.  You may be able to post a "paste" per se so long as you redact all the bad words..LOL.. This board still thinks a particular name of a fish is a "bad word"... Give it a shot...just use ****** instead of what was really said?  

For "minor" bad words, the bot will simply insert "BLEEP" but if there are too many they become overwhelmed and confused which may result in a nastygram. 

[comics-scifi-collectibles]

I'll start trying to get my OP's to post here or at least share a link to their post from the M2M boards  I see DAILY complaints daily from new members that have been asked something along the lines of this

"The person put a offer on my listing that was higher then the price I requested and then asked me to send them my email address associated with my pay pal to pay me separately. Also asked me to text him on a app."

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Buyer-asking-for-pay-pal-email/qaq-p/29922606...

[ittybitnot]

I'll start trying to get my OP's to post here or at least share a link to their post from the M2M boards  

Thank you, every little bit helps.